The Galveston County Facilities Department has taken a proactive approach to the safety and cleanliness of county facilities since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The County has made a commitment to protecting both employees and visitors coming into county facilities and continues to stay ahead of the curve in using technology to fight the coronavirus.
Some of the steps taken by the Facilities Department include:
- The construction of Plexiglas barriers in customer service areas to safely protect employees and customers.
- The addition of social distancing tools such as floor stickers and theater-style rope barricades
- Installing an increased number of wall mounted hand sanitizing stations along with the distribution of hand sanitizer to all departments.
- Adding buildings to a regular anti-viral fogging schedule with special spot fogging occurring in high risk and high traffic areas
- Increasing efforts of building cleaning crews
In March, the Facility Department began the construction of the permanent Plexiglas barricades and by May nearly all the offices that have interactions with the public were equipped. As the County looks to the future, all new construction will incorporate similar types of barriers in customer services areas. These types of strategies not only protect against the spread of COVID-19, they also protect against other viruses such as the flu.
Another proactive step taken by the County early on in the COVID-19 outbreak was the use of the anti-microbial fog that kills the coronavirus and other contagions within two minutes. This fogging agent is the same as what is used to clean and sterilize mass transit train cars in New York City and other big metro areas. Every County facility that has people coming in and out has been added to a schedule for regular fogging. Facilities that have high foot traffic are fogged on an even more rigorous rotation to help ensure cleanliness. Spot fogging is also done if there is suspected case of COVID-19 or after an unusually large gathering of people, such as Commissioners Court.
All the COVID-19 safety initiatives undertaken in Galveston County facilities have been implemented along with the promotion of social distancing where possible. It’s important that people feel safe when they are entering a county building for business and these preventative measures are important to that mission.